


A Sadness Runs Through Him

by harrisonbored



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: All ships are background/minor, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Gen, Han Solo Lives, Implied Kylux but it’s not as explicit as Hanleia or Stormpilot, M/M, Rey and Kylo Ren are related, TLJ fix-it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-17
Updated: 2019-03-17
Packaged: 2019-11-21 20:15:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18146912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/harrisonbored/pseuds/harrisonbored
Summary: “There’s always a way,” Luke said. “The force is a powerful thing, and the universe is a wild place.”(I didn’t like TLJ, so I rewrote it.)





	A Sadness Runs Through Him

**Author's Note:**

> fix it for the end of tfa and all of tlj
> 
> i’ve actually had this idea since 2016 but have never done anything with it??? anyways it’s evolved a lot since then but.

The freezing exterior of Starkiller Base leaked in through the open door. Han Solo could feel the icy wind pelting his back through his thin, leather jacket. Still, he had more pressing issues. 

He had been running (Searching?) for too long. His excuse had first been to look for Luke, but quickly that faded into being unable to cope with yet another person turning out to be untrustworthy. The one person he had counted on to be able to trust forever. 

Han locked eyes with a now mask-less Kylo Ren. His eyes were blank behind his harsh expression, giving away no signs of remorse, but no signs of joy or excitement, either. If anything, he looked resigned, as if he knew what he had to do, even if he didn’t like it very much. 

“Come home, we miss you.”

“Will you help me?”

“Anything.”

He heard Rey’s scream from far behind him, perfectly synced with the lightsaber that pierced him through his stomach. Han reached out, almost blinded by the pain, his hand cupping his son’s face as he collapsed to the ground. 

Kylo Ren looked up over his father’s fallen body. The girl and the former stormtrooper both looked devastated, and Chewbacca had already taken aim with his bowcaster. He almost welcomed the shot that landed around his midsection; he deserved it, honestly. 

Still, he and the stormtroopers that had filled the room gave chase. They followed them outside of building, into the dense forest. Ren came face to face with the former stormtrooper, the traitor, and began to fight. He had lost track of the girl, lost somewhere in the snow. No matter, Ren could deal with her later. 

He managed to take out the traitor, but was immediately confronted by the girl. She was strong but unsteady in the force, her body shaking with rage. She managed to counter every single one of his blows, quick on her feet where Ren was beginning to feel the full extent of his injuries. She laid her final blow, a sharp cut along his cheekbone, and he collapsed to the ground. 

Somehow, they managed to take him from the base before the Resistance blew it to bits. 

When he woke, Snoke summoned him to a meeting in his throne room. He stood before him, unable to stand fully erect, but still physically and emotionally present. Hux stood beside him, reluctantly helping to keep him upright. 

“Han Solo is still alive,” he informed him. “I hope you have a plan for this.”

“I do,” Ren promised. “Trust me, Supreme Leader. I have a use for him yet.”

On his return to his quarters, Ren checked in on the prisoner. Solo had yet to awaken, mouth covered in an oxygen mask and stomach heavily bandaged with bacta patches. He watched on, face that same, resigned expression as before. 

“What is your plan, exactly?” asked Hux.

“We use Solo for what he is: Deeply important to the Resistance. He means a great deal to Organa alive, as well as the girl.” He turned to Hux. “What information were you able to find on her?”

“She’s the one they’ve been looking for,” Hux replied. He gave Ren a knowing look before looking around the bustling medbay. “It’s too crowded here to say much else,” he added, explaining his cryptic wording. 

“Snoke confirmed it was her?”

“Yes, but she’ll never have to know if it doesn’t benefit us.”

Kylo Ren stared back at Han Solo through the glass, expression unreadable yet again. “Very well. I’m going back to my chambers. I have to proceed with caution.”

“I never thought I’d hear you say that,” Hux said, unable to stop himself. A cutting look from Ren and he quickly cleared his throat. “Never mind. Give this good thought, Ren. The Supreme Leader won’t accept anything less than a flawless plan.”

Kylo Ren stormed away, back into his quarters. 

Across the galaxy, Rey sat in mourning aboard the Millennium Falcon. It didn’t make sense, to feel this upset about a man she had only met days ago, but there was a deep hurt within her that she couldn’t explain. Something within the force, maybe?

Chewbacca growled, drawing Rey’s attention out of her thoughts. 

_We’re preparing for landing,_ he said. 

“Okay.” Rey stood and followed him into the cockpit. 

The planet the map had led her to was covered in water. If she hadn’t known so much green existed in the galaxy at Maz’s castle, she certainly hadn’t known so much water did as well. She couldn’t imagine being that close to that amount of water after spending a decade dehydrated in the desert. 

She and Chewie landed on a grassy plain at the foot of an island. As they disembarked, Chewie sniffed the air and let out a howl. 

“He’s here?” Rey asked, stomach churning with anxiety as reality settled back in once again. 

Chewie barked affirmative. 

“Okay, good. Wouldn’t want to drag the hunt out any longer than it already has been,” Rey replied, starting up a flight of slick, uneven stairs. They seemed to stretch on forever, wrapping around the island in tight coils. The ocean slapped the rocks along the sides, and little birdlike creatures scattered and squawked as she walked past. Chewie followed close behind, growling menacingly every time one got too close for his liking. 

“No, you cannot eat them,” Rey chastised at one point, after one of the creatures dive-bombed Chewie. He roared back something that didn’t have a direct translation, but she knew for a fact was a swear. 

“Fine, if Luke Skywalker says you can eat them, you can eat them.”

_I do believe he was a plant-eater before he left,_ Chewie grumbled miserably. 

Rey understood his foul mood, though. She was just as tired, upset, and anxious. And Chewbacca had just lost a lifelong partner and friend. Rey had barely known Han.

Finally, they reached the top of the island, where the rocks plateaued and an abandoned-looking village sat. Rey looked around, searching for any signs of life, and nearly missed the hooded figure standing along the ledge, blending in with the gray rocks. 

“Luke Skywalker?” Rey asked. 

The figure didn’t startle, but slowly began to turn to face her. They removed their hood, revealing a weathered, bearded face. The old man stared her down, blue eyes steely and cold. 

Rey said nothing, only reaching into her bag to extend the lightsaber. 

He looked her up and down, before slowly reaching out to take the ‘saber. He held it in his hands, one of which was a badly deteriorated mechanical prosthetic. 

“I haven’t seen this in years,” he murmured, almost as if forgetting Rey was there. “How did you find it?”

“It was at Maz Kanata’s. It called to me,” Rey explained. 

“The ‘saber called to you?” Luke asked, looking her dead in the eye. 

“Yes. I ran, at first, but...” she trailed off, unable to figure out how to follow up her statement. “Anyways, I’ve just come from Starkiller. I fought Kylo Ren with that lightsaber.”

Luke looked at her again, but said nothing. Finally, he walked past her and up to Chewbacca. 

“How have you been, Chewie?” he asked softly, avoiding getting too close into the Wookiee’s personal space. 

Chewie let out a low growl that roughly translated to “I ought to punch you” before reaching out and pulling him into a crushing hug. 

“I know, I probably deserve it,” Luke admitted, more than a little dejected. 

_And that is why I didn’t,_ Chewie added, letting Luke go. 

“What is your name, girl?” Luke asked, turning to Rey.

“Rey.”

“Rey...?”

“Just Rey.”

Something unrecognizable passed over Luke’s face, but he finally nodded and walked over to hand Rey the lightsaber. 

“But—“

“It’s yours. You found it.” 

Rey took the ‘saber and stared at it. “I thought—“

“It was my father’s lightsaber before mine. It makes sense to pass it down to whoever found it next.” He turned to Rey. While he still held a deep aura of depression, there was something warm behind his eyes. 

Rey nodded and looked back down to the lightsaber. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” Luke warned, collapsing against a stone bench. “Let me guess, the Resistance sent you here to collect me?”

“Yes, Master Skywalker, we need help! The First Order—“

“Do you really think I can do anything about it now?” Luke snapped, the first time he’d acted quickly since they’d arrived. “I couldn’t stop Kylo Ren when he was young and inexperienced. What makes you think I could stop him now, with years of training and an army behind him?”

“I fought him! I knocked him out, and I only knew how to fight with a staff! He’s not as untouchable as you think he is!”

Luke went still, seemingly not even breathing. Rey tensed, fearing she may have said something wrong. The only kind of negotiation she was good at involved a shouting match.

“You knocked Kylo Ren out without any training?” Luke asked slowly. 

“Yes.”

Luke looked her in the eyes, then turned his gaze to the ‘saber. 

“Maybe... Just maybe...” he mumbled cryptically. He looked back up at her. 

“Someone once told me I was too old to train to become a Jedi. He was wrong, but it wasn’t easy. Are you ready for that?”

“Nothing about my life has been easy,” Rey responded. 

Luke nodded. “If you’re willing, I’ll train you. But I cannot go back with you.”

“Please—“

“There’s no point in begging, Rey. It’s something I made my mind up about a long time ago.”

Rey had no response for that, actively fighting the compulsion to argue. Instead, she gave him a hard, silent stare.

“Chewie’s here, what ship did you come on?” Luke asked, changing the subject.

“The Millennium Falcon.”

“The Falcon? Where’s Han?”

Rey cringed. “Han Solo is... Is dead.”

Luke froze. He stared at Rey, then to Chewie, and then off into the distance. His eyes fluttered shut, breathing in deeply, holding it, then exhaling slowly. 

“If Han Solo is dead, then how can I feel him?”

“What?”

“I can feel Han’s presence in the force. I wouldn’t be able to do that if he were dead... At least, I don’t think.”

“I saw Kylo Ren run him through with his lightsaber, there’s no way he’s still alive!”

“There’s always a way,” Luke said. “The force is a powerful thing, and the universe is a wild place.”

Rey stared at him in disbelief. Luke sighed and nodded. “At least you aren’t wide-eyed and dying for adventure like I was. You’ve got a healthy dose of skepticism.”

“I didn’t even want to leave Jakku,” Rey admitted. 

“What’s on Jakku worth hanging around for?” Luke asked. 

“My family is... Was coming back for me,” Rey replied. “Now I’m not sure if they ever were.”

Luke nodded solemnly. Seemingly noting that it was a sore subject, he switched back to their prior conversation. “If you’d like, I could show you how I know Han’s alive.”

“Really?” Rey asked, eyes brightening. 

Luke almost laughed. “Why not? If you’re powerful enough to take on Kylo Ren, maybe you’re powerful enough to do that.”

He turned to Chewbacca. “Chewie, mind if we head off for a bit? The old dormitories on the far side of the island are where I’ve been living, if you want to make yourself at home.”

Chewbacca growled in agreement and headed off, shooing off the same flying animals they’d encountered on their way up. 

Luke guided Rey in the opposite direction, down another ancient flight of stairs and into a sheltered cove. Rey could almost feel the pulse of the ocean here, shaking the island with each crash of the waves. 

“Sit down,” Luke instructed, patting a large, flat rock that sat at about waist-height. 

Rey sat down, crossed her legs, then looked to Luke expectantly. 

“Close your eyes—“ Rey did as she was told. “And let down your barriers. Reach out. Think only of Han, and see if you can feel him.”

Rey nodded, and slowly, shakily reached out her hand. She thought of Han, of him handing her the blaster and the offer on his ship. She thought of the kindness he’d extended her, the only little kindness anyone had ever shown her before. She thought of Kylo Ren’s lightsaber piercing his abdomen—

Rey gasped, jolting and opening her eyes. She had felt _something,_ whether it was Han or not...

“Did you feel it?” Luke asked. 

“I... I don’t know,” Rey admitted. 

“It can always be difficult before you get the hang of it, and even then there are times it’s hard. If you trust me enough to train you, then please trust me enough when I say he is alive,” Luke almost begged. 

Rey nodded. “Okay. I believe you.”

“Good. Then we don’t have much time. And you don’t have to literally reach out, by the way,” he said. Rey blushed and quickly slammed her arm down at her side. Luke grimaced at the sound of her knuckles cracking against the rock, but Rey seemed undisturbed by it. 

She followed him back to the cluster of stone huts on the far side of the island. Chewbacca was waiting for them there, still fighting with the creatures. 

“The porgs like you,” Luke said dryly, watching Chewie practically throw one over the edge of the cliff, only for it to awkwardly fly off until it found purchase in the rock face. 

Chewie moaned dramatically. 

“You have to admit, they’re pretty cute, though,” Luke replied. “And no, you can’t eat them.”

Chewie growled but stalked off to his now de-porged hut. 

“Come on, Rey,” Luke said. “You’re going to need to rest if we’re going to do this properly.”

The sun had just set, but Rey was easily ready to go to sleep. She’d barely slept in the past standard week. She selected one of the huts and slipped inside. The sleep mat was worn and stiff, but it was better than anything she’d ever had on Jakku, and she fell asleep instantly. 

As Rey dreamed, Kylo Ren contemplated. 

Han Solo would be brought out of his coma soon, ready to be relocated to the standard prison block. Ren was long overdue a meeting with Snoke, but explaining his plan was proving exceedingly difficult. 

Not that the plan was difficult to follow. It was actually fairly straightforward. However, it was the emotional toll he struggled with. Still, a difficult explanation was better than leaving an increasingly angry Supreme Leader empty handed, so he forced himself to arrange a forum with Snoke and several other high-ranking officers in the First Order, including several members of the Knights of Ren. 

Snoke didn’t keep him waiting long, approving the meeting mere minutes after it was requested. Kylo Ren took a slow elevator ride to his chambers alone, contemplating what to say. 

He entered the room mask-less, the only Knight of Ren to do so. Hux arrived not long after him, flanked by a small team of Stormtrooper captains. Even with many of them continuing to sport their helmets, they all were visibly taken aback at Ren’s sudden vulnerability. 

“Well, Ren?” Snoke said, staring him down coldly but patiently. 

“As you may be aware,” Kylo Ren began, “Han Solo was severely injured and taken captive before the destruction of Starkiller. At the time, the plan was to terminate Solo, but I believed he was of greater use to us alive rather than dead. Solo’s survival is important to the Resistance, not only in his asset as a pilot and retired general, but also on a personal level. I am sure Leia Organa would go to great lengths to see his safe return to them.”

“So, we’ll be using Solo as a bartering tool?” Hux chimed in, crossing his arms. 

“Yes, General,” Ren said coolly, turning to face him. “If we contact the Resistance, tell them that Solo is alive, they might be willing to exchange him for information on Skywalker, the girl, or any other vital information we might need.”

“It’s risky,” warned a Knight, her voice muffled by the mask. 

“But it might be worth it,” Snoke interjected, deep in thought. “We’ll follow Ren’s plan for now,” he said after a few moments, “then, if things don’t proceed in our favor, we may return to the original plan.” 

Kylo Ren fought back a gulp.

Snoke dismissed the meeting, assigning Hux responsibility of drafting the message to the Resistance, but Kylo Ren the responsibility of delivering it. 

“We’ll have to hack into their comm channels,” Ren said to Hux as they walked back into the command room. 

“Leave that to my team,” Hux replied. “I hope this plan of yours works, Ren. For Solo’s sake and your’s.”

Despite the ominous wording, it was an oddly tender sentiment. “Don’t go soft on me, General.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Hux rolled his eyes and began barking off orders to a nervous-looking aide. 

Kylo Ren settled down in a private sitting room, his mostly-healed wounds still easily agitated. He watched as Hux’s team began scurrying to decrypt the firewall on the Resistance’s secure commlines. Ren knew it wouldn’t take long. 

“We want the girl,” he mumbled to himself. “We need the girl.”

“Rey... Rey!”

Finn shot up, banging his head on the Bacta chamber’s covering. 

“Woah, woah, easy there!” Came an unfamiliar female voice, leaning over. Finn squinted as his eyes struggled to adjust. 

A woman with tan skin and dark hair was fiddling with the chamber’s controls. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and her fatigues suggested she wasn’t the usual nurse. 

“How are you feeling? Commander Dameron will be happy to hear you’re awake,” she said softly, her voice almost drowned out by the faint hiss of the chamber’s lid lifting. 

“Poe... Poe!” Finn sat up again, only to have his shoulders grabbed by the girl. 

“Poe’s a little busy right now.” She began scanning his body, seemingly a little lost. “I... Uh, I’m sorry, I really don’t know what I’m doing. They lost a lot of personnel in the last battle, so they’ve had to assign some of us double duty.”

Finn forced his breathing to slow. He squeezed his eyes shut and slowly reopened them, before turning to face her. 

“Who are you?”

“Rose Tico,” she introduced herself, following it up with a satisfied “a-ha!” as she disconnected one of the Bacta lines. “And it didn’t squirt either of us in the face!”

Finn gave her an uncomfortable look. 

“I wish I could say you’re in capable hands, but...” Rose grinned sheepishly. “They technically trained me how to do basically everything when I joined, especially all this medical stuff, but that was years ago now.”

Something wet and sticky collided with Finn’s face, causing him to jump. 

“Oh, kriff!” Rose swore, smashing a few buttons before the Bacta drip turned off. “I’m sorry, let me grab you a cloth...”

Finally, Rose (with Finn’s help) was able to get him fully disconnected, leaving him only in an uncomfortable and, frankly, revealing suit. 

“Commander Dameron left something for you to change into,” she said, gesturing to a pile of neatly folded clothes on a sterile-looking white table. “I’ll leave so you can have some privacy.”

Rose vanished behind a pale blue divider, off to tend to another patient. 

Finn changed quickly, only pausing to slide his hands over the uneven stitching along the back of the jacket. Poe must have fixed the damages from his fight with Kylo Ren.

He slipped the jacket on and stood up. The medical wing was quiet, with only the beeping of machinery and the hum of the ship’s engines resounding through the room. Finn walked over to the divider, peering around. 

Rose was knelt over another Bacta chamber, her fingers delicately pressed against the covering. Finn stood there and watched her for a moment, before softly clearing his throat. 

Rose startled and turned around. “Oh, Finn.” She stood up, taking another pensive look behind her. 

“Is it something private?” Finn asked. 

“Oh, uh, it’s... It’s my sister,” Rose almost whispered. “She was... One of the personnel losses from the last battle.”

“I’m sorry,” Finn apologized softly.

“It’s not your fault,” Rose said. “If anything, it’s mine. If I hadn’t held her up...” She sniffled, wrapping her arms around her midsection. 

“What happened? If you don’t mind my asking.”

“She’s on one of the bomb squads, which were one of the last groups to ship out from base when we evacuated anyways, because it’s such a precise thing to carry. I— I insisted on helping out, even though I was probably mostly just in the way. If I had just gone on to my station...” Rose clenched her fists, almost as if she was fighting hurting herself. 

“Hey, Rose, it’s okay,” Finn began, reaching out and attempting to soothe her. 

“I’m sorry.” Rose dragged the back of her hand across her nose. “It’s pathetic of me to cry over making careless mistakes, especially in front of someone who defected from the First Order.” She smiled weakly. “But you’re going to help us, right?”

“Oh, uh, right,” Finn stammered. 

Rose cocked her head to the side. “You... You weren’t planning on leaving, were you?”

“Not immediately,” Finn said. “Look, I’ll be glad to give any information I can to help bring down the First Order, but I... I left the Order because I wasn’t going to kill for them. I’m not so sure how I feel killing for the Resistance, either.”

Rose gave him a scrutinizing look, before nodding slowly. “You’re a real pacifist, huh?” 

Finn wasn’t sure if she was being sarcastic or not. “I guess.”

Rose bit back a huff and gave one last look at her sister, before turning back to Finn, significantly deflated. 

“I’m not here to judge your morality,” she said. “Just know that we could really use fighters like you.”

With that, Rose walked away and disappeared into a different part of the medical wing. 

Finn took it upon himself to find Poe. He made it out of medical and easily became lost in the cruiser’s winding halls, running into various unfamiliar resistance members. 

Finally, he stumbled upon a familiar face. General Organa had changed from her resistance fatigues to something a little more regal, but still fairly practical. She smiled at him as soon as she saw him, pulling him out of the bustling crowd that threatened to swallow him.

“Commander Dameron is going to be upset he wasn’t there when you woke up,” she told him, guiding him towards the command center at the front of the ship. “He’s on his shift right now, but he’s in desperate need of cheering up. I can’t have my best pilot mopey when I need him.”

Finn was tempted to ask her what had happened while he had been out, but if Poe was upset, maybe it was best to wait until it was less fresh. 

They reached the command center, where Poe was discussing mission readouts with a woman with blonde buns. As soon as he saw Finn, though, his eyes lit up and he immediately walked away, leaving the woman mid-sentence. 

Poe tugged Finn into a tight hug once he was in arm’s reach, exhaling like he had been holding his breath the entire time Finn was under. 

“Glad to see you up and running, buddy,” Poe mumbled into Finn’s shoulder.

“Glad to be up and running,” Finn replied, melting into Poe’s warmth. 

“Take a break, Commander,” General Organa said kindly. “I think you deserve one.”

“General—“

“Poe, I mean it. And when you’re off the clock, it’s Leia.”

Poe nodded. “All right, and since we’re off the clock...” He leaned over and kissed her cheek. “Go keep Lieutenant Connix from killing me for walking off on her.”

“Will do.” Leia pulled away from their brief embrace, then patted Finn on the shoulder. 

Finn looked at Poe. “What was that?”

“Uh, General and I go way back. Like, my birth back. She’s basically my second mom. Not that we let it effect work or anything.”

Finn nodded, crossed his arms, and smiled teasingly. 

“Come on, I’m starved, and I’m sure you must be, too.” Poe’s face was flushed, and he was about to guide Finn away from the command center when the lights quickly dimmed. 

The room’s loud chatter dropped to an immediate silence. All heads turned to face the large projection taking up the far windows. 

“Leia Organa,” Kylo Ren’s staticky form announced. “I am here to strike a boon.”

Leia walked to the front of the room, almost as if protecting everyone behind her. 

“What do you want, Ben?” she asked boldly, and while her voice didn’t shake, Finn was close enough to see the tremor in her hands. 

“Ben Solo is dead to me,” Kylo Ren insisted. Still, he continued. “It has been reported to you by both defective stormtrooper FN-2187 and the fledgling Jedi girl that Han Solo was killed.”

“By you!” cried out somebody in the room, although Finn couldn’t place the voice. 

Kylo Ren ignored them. “These claims are false.”

The room went from dead silence to a roar. Finn, unable to stop himself, approached Leia. “I watched you stab him! I watched your lightsaber go straight through his chest!” he called out, filled with the swell of rage he had felt back on Starkiller. 

Kylo Ren did acknowledge him. “Just because he was injured does not mean he’s dead, traitor.”

Poe grabbed at the back of Finn’s jacket. Once again, Leia stepped between the projection and Finn, as if Kylo Ren were physically present. 

“Okay, so Han’s alive,” Leia said. “I’m assuming you want something from us in order to keep him that way?”

“You’re a smart woman, no doubting that,” Kylo Ren replied, and it almost read as a compliment. “We don’t want much. We aren’t even asking for your surrender. All we want is the girl.”

“No!” Finn shouted, but Poe tugged him back before he could step forward again. He wrapped his arms tightly around Finn, forcing him to stay still. 

“Rey is not ours to just give away,” Leia said diplomatically. “But we will pass on your message to her.”

“She has 48 standard hours to contact us. If that time passes and we haven’t heard back, Solo is as good as dead.” And with that, the transmission fizzled out, leaving the entire room in stunned silence. 

Leia turned to face them “Well? Comm the Falcon, we don’t have all day!” she commanded, finally showing some sign of distress. 

“Poe, Finn, follow me,” Leia said to them, marching out of the room. They followed quickly, BB-8 appearing and rolling at their heels. 

“I don’t trust this,” Leia mumbled, her fists clenched and her jaw tight. “I don’t trust this at all.”

“General—“

“You’re still technically off the clock, Dameron, and I don’t think I can handle being the general right now,” Leia confessed, opening up a door to what Finn slowly realized were her chambers. She quickly ushered them inside before closing and locking the door behind them. She collapsed into a chair, her head in her hands. 

“Leia—“

“Shh, for a second, please, Poe,” Leia said, a little unhinged. She almost seemed like she was going to cry. 

It was quiet, save for BB-8’s gentle chirping. They rolled over, softly bumping Leia’s legs.

“Thanks, BeeBee,” Leia whispered, reaching down to place her hand on them. BB-8 started up their warmers, practically purring.

Once she had composed herself some, she looked back to Finn and Poe. 

“We need a backup plan,” she said. “In case we can’t get up with Rey in time.

“Han... Han died for a second there. They revived him, but I felt it. I... I refuse to feel that again.”

“You can feel it? That they weren’t lying?” Poe asked, crossing over to kneel at Leia’s side. She nodded, reaching out to grab Poe’s hand. 

“I can feel him. He’s faint, but he’s alive.” 

Poe had nothing to say to that. He comfortingly rubbed his thumb along the back of Leia’s hand. 

“We’ll need to put together a stealth team. Sneak aboard the First Order’s ship,” Poe brainstormed, not letting go of Leia. He turned to Finn. “I know you just woke up, but would you be willing to help? You’re the only one who has intimate knowledge of the First Order’s star destroyers.”

Finn stared at Poe contemplatively. “Fine. But... I don’t want to have to kill anyone.”

“If I have anything to do with it, you won’t,” Poe promised. 

Leia nodded. “Bring another tech specialist with you, and that’ll round out the team. We’ll keep this just between us, just so word won’t get potentially spread out.”

“All right,” Poe agreed, finally rising up and releasing Leia’s hand. “I don’t know where I’m gonna find an unoccupied tech guy, though. We’re spread pretty thin as it is.”

“Rose Tico,” Finn suggested. Poe turned to look at him.

“I thought she was in a coma?”

“That’s her sister. Rose was the one who was there when I woke up. She said she was trained to do basically everything.” Finn refrained from mentioning her slip-ups while disconnecting him. 

Poe considered him and the nodded. “I think we could spare someone who got reassigned to the medical wing.”

“We’ll give Rey some time to get back with us. 24 hours at most. Then we’re sending you in.”

“Give Finn at least a little time to adjust.” Poe clapped Finn on the shoulder. “Come on, we’ve got work to do.”

Finn followed Poe back past the Command Center; even though he didn’t look in, he could practically feel the frantic energy radiating from inside. They kept walking until they reached the medcenter, where it was noticeably quieter. 

They found Rose sitting vigil with her sister, her eyes glossy and tired. Poe sat down across from her silently, but she seemed to not notice him until he spoke up. 

“Paige was good at her job. It’s a shame what happened to her,” Poe said, voice soft and sympathetic. 

Something guilty crossed Rose’s eyes. “Yeah,” she mumbled, not making eye contact. 

“But, because of her, a lot of other people made it out unharmed. She’s a hero,” Poe continued. “And it’s not impossible she won’t pull through. Don’t lose hope.”

Rose nodded, still not looking directly at Poe. “Am I needed for something, Commander Dameron?”

“We’re putting together a little team for a potential mission,” Poe explained. “It may not have to happen, but it’s always good to have a plan B.

“Kylo Ren contacted us saying Han Solo was still alive. The First Order is holding him hostage until Rey, the new Jedi girl, goes to confront them. I’m gonna be the pilot, Finn here’s gonna offer his First Order intelligence, and BeeBee’s gonna be our lookout and computer translator. What we still need, though, is somebody who knows ship tech inside and out. I think someone who’s been doing repair work most of her career is a good fit.”

Rose looked up at him. “Are you serious?”

“As a heart attack.”

Rose looked to Finn, then to Paige, then back to Poe. “I’ll do it,” she said, almost smiling, “but don’t be surprised if I somehow manage to kark it up for you guys.”

“All right.” Poe grinned and clapped his hand on Rose’s shoulder. “Time to get planning.”

As the Resistance struggled to contact Rey, she began her training with Luke in full force. 

“I can’t do it,” Rey moaned as the pebbles she attempted to raise refused to budge an inch. “It’s impossible!” As she cried out, she slammed her fist down on the ground, causing the rocks to rise, hover for a brief few seconds, then fall again. 

“Why couldn’t you have done that ten minutes ago?” Rey shouted, causing them to fly off in different directions, one of them pelting her in the face. 

“You’re angry,” Luke interjected. Before Rey could give him a snarky comeback, he continued. “It’s okay to be angry, but you can’t let it control you or the force. Imagine if those rocks had been bigger, or something more dangerous.”

Rey took a deep breath and nodded. “Sorry,” she mumbled, trying to regain her composure. 

“It’s all right,” Luke replied, lightly patting her on the shoulder. “I told you it would be difficult.

“I say we take a break and eat a meal,” Luke said. “Then we can get back to training. I’d like to see what you can do with the lightsaber.”

Rey followed Luke back over to the dormitories, where she helped him prepare a stew comprised mostly of dried herbs, wild vegetables, and seawater. It was salty, but satisfying. She was mostly quiet while she ate, too hungry to think about conversation topics. 

“You trained Kylo Ren, correct?” she asked finally.

“...Yes. Ben was my apprentice for several years,” Luke said slowly, his fingers tightening around his bowl. 

“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” Rey replied quickly. 

“No, no. You have a right to know what you’re up against,” Luke sighed. “Ask me anything, Rey, and I’ll answer as best as I can.”

“What happened to him?”

“I... I can’t say for sure. I believe he was under Snoke’s influence for a long time before he turned to the dark, but it’s only a hunch.”

“What was he like as a child?”

“For the most part, fairly normal. He was the typical only child— a little needy, a little self-absorbed, but not badly behaved necessarily— up until Leia had her second baby. But that was around the time Ben came to train with me.”

“Han and Leia had another child?” Rey asked.

“A little girl, named Breha, after Leia’s adoptive mother. We... We think she was killed by the nascent First Order when she was five years old. She was taken and never found.”

“Oh, kriff,” Rey mumbled, hugging herself. “No wonder Han and Leia fell apart.”

“We all did. It was... I think it was around that time that Snoke began influencing Kylo Ren as well. It’s only speculation, but I think they were both attempts to break the Resistance— the New Republic, then— down from the inside. When losing their daughter didn’t send them into a downward spiral, they began manipulating Ben instead. Since killing one of their children didn’t work, I guess they decided to not only take their other child, but make an asset out of him, too.

“There was some space between events, though. Ren didn’t turn for nearly another ten years, but the signs of conflict showed. I thought that taking him under my wing might give him some guidance, but I think it was maybe my biggest mistake.” Luke looked mournfully, contemplatively, out across the gray ocean, before taking a deep breath and speaking again. “I was the person who tipped him over, in the end.”

“Luke, that can’t be possible—“

“I tried to attack him. It was a moment of weakness, and I realized it only seconds after I’d drawn my ‘saber on him.”

Rey looked taken aback, then looked him over. “Even if you made a mistake, he made a choice,” she said eventually, placing her hand on his forearm. 

Luke shook his head and put his face in his hands. “I should have known! I should have known he was trying to bait me! He did it the exact same way that Vader did when I confronted him all those years ago, too.”

Rey watched him expectantly. Luke took a few deep breaths to compose himself before continuing: “Ben... He threatened Leia. He said he was going to kill me, the other students, and then travel to kill her. Then there would be nobody to stand in Snoke’s way.”

“He threatened you, Luke! You had every right to defend yourself and your school!” Rey pleaded. “You can’t blame yourself for that!”

“I should have kept my composure! If I hadn’t drawn on him, refused to fight until he actually acted, maybe I could have tried to reason with him!”

Rey, concerned and frustrated, forced Luke to face her. “You can’t change the past. Have you talked to Leia since then? To Han? They would have never blamed you for that.”

“Of course they wouldn’t! They’ve always been far too forgiving of me! They’d be blinded by—“

“Oh, for kriff’s sake!” Rey moaned. She stood up, the grass at her feet ruffling with her anger. “I’m going to go continue training. You can sit in the corner and wallow, or you can actually do something about the mistakes you’ve made and help me. Wouldn’t that alleviate at least some guilt?”

Luke stared up at her, an unreadable expression on his face. After several tumultuous moments, he nodded in agreement and rose to his feet. 

“We... I have to let the past die.”

“No, we just have to learn from it,” Rey replied. “We can’t change it, so we have to let it make us who we are, make who we are better than who we were. That’s the only thing that kept me alive on Jakku. If I had let anything get to me, I’d be dead right now.”

Luke nodded. “Maybe I should have gone to Jakku instead of here. You could’ve knocked some sense into me,” he said dryly.

Rey laughed. “And you could have made me a little less... Aggressive,” she agreed. 

“I guess we both have something to learn from each other.” Luke smiled, an expression that seemed out of practice to both him and Rey. 

“Come on, I’ll show you exactly how I could have knocked some sense into you,” Rey said, smiling back. 

They took a grassy path to the other side of the island, where the remains of some ancient structure sat. As it was currently, the open area was mostly a level field, the only one Rey had seen thus far. 

“Show me what you’ve got,” Luke instructed, standing off to the side to give Rey some room. 

Rey nodded and turned to face a pile of rubble. She drew her ‘saber and envisioned the fight between her and Ren. Latent anger mixed with her eagerness to prove herself to Luke after such a difficult morning washed over her, and she moved quickly and accurately. The lightsaber felt almost as natural in her hand as her old staff had, although it had its own learning curve. Still, by the time she finished, the rubble had been effortlessly sliced into several pieces.

“Your technique isn’t bad,” Luke commented. “You said you fought with something similar before?”

“I carried a staff back on Jakku. Taught myself how to defend myself.”

Luke nodded. “You’re still drawing on your anger, though,” he pointed out. 

Rey sighed. “It’s not... It’s not _controlling_ me, though,” she almost whined. 

Luke gave her a partially amused look. “I know, but it’s best to try to not use it as a crutch. Here,” he paused, drawing his own lightsaber from his robes, “let’s spar. Try to draw on other emotions, okay?”

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Rey warned. 

Luke shook his head. “You won’t.”

Rey got into position across from him, their lightsabers making a satisfying sound as they collided. Rey had never sparred with anyone for fun before, only ever fighting to protect herself back on Jakku. 

She began to think on other things. Her mind first wandered to fear. The way she’d felt before on Jakku. Fear of being hurt, being robbed, being taken advantage of, being physically taken. She felt the fear of being interrogated by Kylo Ren—

No, thinking of him would only make her angry again. Rey centered herself. She came back to the fear on the Falcon, when Han had boarded. At first, she felt a sharp pain at the thought of Han, but quickly remembered Luke’s promise that he was alive; how she’d possibly felt that herself. She felt warmth spread through her chest. 

Rey continued to think about Han, and Finn, and General Organa, and Chewbacca, and even Luke. She thought of the parents that might still be searching for her. The warmth continued to swell. 

“That’s it, Rey!” Luke exclaimed, suddenly stepping back. Rey’s lightsaber swing cut through empty air, and she stopped. 

“What’s it?”

“Did you not see how well you were doing? Because you were dwelling on the people you loved?”

Rey paused, thinking for a moment. She turned to the rubble from before, turning back to her thoughts. She remembered the hug she and Finn had shared on the Falcon after escaping the First Order back on Jakku. She could almost hear Han offering her a job on his ship. Every happy memory came pouring into her mind, filling her up. 

Slowly but surely, the rubble rose from the ground at her command, then stacking neatly back on top of each other. 

Luke laughed triumphantly behind her. Rey spun around to face him, her face in a wide grin. 

“Congratulations, Rey,” Luke said, walking over to her and wrapping her up in his arms. “You’ve taken your first steps into a larger world.”

Rey hugged him back, his shoulder warm against her cheek. Something about this felt familiar, deep inside her, and she hoped that she had been held like this with her family before. 

Little droplets of water began tapping Rey’s arms. She pulled away and looked up. Clouds had formed overhead, and rain was coming down. 

It had only rained on Jakku once the entire time Rey had lived there, and it was nothing like this. It was a sudden, two-day long deluge, wherein the sand was turned to sticky mush and it wasn’t safe to leave her shelter. She’d gone without food for three days because of it. 

This rain, however, was soft and sweet and cool against her sweaty skin. She reached out her palms to collect the water as the raindrops picked up momentum. Once they were full enough, she drank from her cupped hands, and she almost giggled. 

Luke watched her from beneath the shelter of an overhang, and was painfully reminded of a first rainfall on Yavin. Han and Leia pulled him out into it, getting soaked in the rain, warm enough to be bathwater.

As Luke thought of Leia, he wondered, not for the first time, what she was doing. 

Time was passing quickly. There were only a few hours left until Poe’s rescue team would have to be deployed. The three of them had been relieved from the rest of their duties in order to plan.

Leia couldn’t help but be nervous. Poe was her best pilot, her future replacement, her son. Even before Ben and Shara Bey’s death, Leia had been close with the Damerons, with Poe. She had held Poe only hours after he had been born. He had sat with her through senatorial meetings and in the war room alike. Letting anything happen to him would be tragic. 

Not only that, but Finn was an invaluable source of information. Clearly, she didn’t know him like she knew Poe, but it would be a devastating loss if he was recaptured by the First Order. And losing any more members would hurt them, so Rose was important, too. 

And, gods above, she wasn’t even going to think about Han.

They all needed to come out of there alive. 

“Any word from the Falcon?” she asked, only to receive the same ‘no’ she had for the past 20 hours. 

“If we have to send them in, they’ll be fine, Leia,” General Holdo said, crossing over to place her hand on Leia’s shoulder. “And Han will be, too.”

Leia nodded. “I’m refusing to believe anything else.”

“You always told me, if we only have hope when we can see the sun—“

“We’ll never make it through the night,” Leia finished with a sigh. 

“Besides, Dameron’s just arrogant enough to pull it off,” Holdo attempted to joke, and while it didn’t fall flat, it didn’t exactly comfort Leia. She smiled half-heartedly and turned her attention back to her work. 

“Should we begin preparing a transport for the mission?” Holdo asked. 

“I guess so. Better be safe than sorry,” Leia decided. “Make sure the fuel reserves are at the right level.”

“Will do.” Holdo gave her a final reassuring squeeze before heading off. 

The final few hours felt both like minutes and years. There was still no response from Rey, and, just like every attempt to contact Luke through the force since he had left, Leia couldn’t get a hold on Luke. To calm herself, she focused on Han’s presence, growing stronger with every moment. She wondered where he was, how he was being kept. Was he in a coma? Was he in a jail cell? She couldn’t feel him being tortured, unlike other times in the past, which was a mild comfort. She hoped, whatever was happening, that he was as safe as possible. 

Finally, though, the 24-hour mark passed, and Leia was left with no other choice. Leaving the command center with instructions to not stop contacting Rey, Leia headed off to meet Poe, Finn, and Rose. 

“Now when you get there, make sure to be as incognito as possible. Finn, Poe, I’d recommend you two to get ahold of stormtrooper armor so that nobody will recognize your faces. Rose, you just try and find something that’ll fit,” Leia said. 

“Never thought I’d have to wear that shit again,” Finn mumbled.

“Only for a little while, buddy,” Poe tried to comfort him. “‘Sides, I’m stuck in one, too. Don’t know how Rose drew the long straw.”

“I’m the only one who’s face the First Order wouldn’t recognize. Both of you degenerates had to go and make yourselves public enemy numbers one and two,” Rose replied, successfully lightening the mood. 

“Good luck,” Leia said, firmly shaking hands with Finn and Rose, “and may the force be with you.”

Rose and Finn stepped inside the pod, and as Poe moved to follow them, Leia pulled him into a quick hug. “Please, please don’t...” Leia trailed off, unable to speak her thoughts allowed. 

“I won’t. And Han won’t either, whatever it is you’re thinking,” Poe promised, pulling away. “I’ll see you, General.”

Leia nodded, biting her lip. She might allow herself tears once the pod was launched, but not now. Not when she needed to be brave. 

Poe stepped inside the pod. Once he sat down, BB-8 plugged into the mainframe and began the launch codes. The doors closed quickly, and an overly-calm voice began feeding them takeoff instructions. With a jolt, they were projected into space, the small window showing the increasing distance between the ship and them. 

“All right, Beebee, once they let out their garbage, we’re going to sneak in through that exit. We should be able to navigate our way up and out from there, once they close the airlock.”

The air in the pod was tense as BB-8 navigated them through piles of trash and into the opened gates. They landed on the wall adjacent to the doors, making it more difficult for them to get sucked back out. Finally, the last of the garbage emptied out and the door closed. Poe gave it several good seconds before opening the pod doors. 

“Breathable air,” Poe announced. “Smelly, but breathable. Come on, gang, let’s do this.”

The team exited the pod. “Finn, you were a janitor, what’s the best way up?” Poe asked. 

“Usually, there was a maintenance door for if something got jammed or the garbage release needed serviced. It should be around here somewhere,” Finn replied. “It was just a normal door, might have a passcode lock on it.”

“Over there,” Rose said, pointing to the far wall. They crossed over and Finn attempted to open it. 

“Yep, passcode. And I’ll bet they’ve changed the codes because of me.”

“Good news is, Beebee might be able to sweet talk the system. Give it a go, bud,” Poe said, stepping back to let BB-8 plug into the door. After a few moments, it unlocked with a satisfying click. 

“Good job,” Poe whisper-exclaimed, rubbing BB-8 on the head. 

Rose checked the corridor outside. “Empty, let’s go,” she said, guiding the others outside. 

“Usually they won’t have too many people down on this level,” Finn said. “If I remember right, the prison cells were about dead center of the ship. Makes it harder to escape.”

“We’ve got to get disguises first,” Rose reminded them. “None of us are wearing Resistance insignias or anything, but we don’t exactly scream First Order personnel, either. And you’re both public enemies, remember?”

“Gotcha,” Poe said. “Finn, would they keep spare uniforms anywhere?”

“Laundry was usually only a level above trash disposal.”

“Good. We’ll take the stairs, not the lift, and beg the force that we don’t see anyone on the way up.” Poe reached down and lifted BB-8 with a grunt. “Let’s go, and hope to the force that it’s not far.”

As Finn had promised, the large laundry rooms were only a flight of stairs away. The floor was occupied by a pair of tired looking droids, scrubbing away at some sheets. 

The group hid behind a large cart of laundry, watching the droids work. “I might be wrong, but I’ve got a hunch that they’d keep extra ‘trooper armor in those closets,” Finn whispered, gesturing to a set of doors just beyond the droids. 

“How do we get over there?” Rose asked. 

Poe looked around for a moment, before noting an empty stack of baskets. Poe took one and turned it over BB-8, who gave a hushed, startled sound. 

“C’mon, Beebs, we all have to look silly,” Poe muttered. “Just scoot over there slow-like, so maybe they won’t notice?”

“It’s a dumb idea,” Rose mumbled, “but those droids don’t look particularly advanced.” 

Poe and Finn stared at her.

Rose sighed. “It’s worth a shot.”

Poe gave BB-8 the thumbs-up, and they slowly crept out from behind the rolling bins. The droids paid them no mind as the laundry basket slid silently across the room, BB-8 only pausing once when one paused for a second, only to reach up for a stain remover. 

BB-8 finally made it to the doors, finding them unlocked and easy to open. Once inside, they stuck out a lighter to signal there were uniforms inside. 

“Great, but how to we get over there?” Rose asked. Finn and Poe began trying to calculate a route, when BB-8 reappeared in the doorway, pushing a basket full of disassembled stormtrooper armor in front of them. 

The three humans watched in horror as the droid casually pushed the basket along the floor, now making a loud scraping noise due to the weight. Still, the washer droids never once looked up. BB-8 finally reached the group, before cheerfully chirping that both droids were not programmed to hear. 

“And you couldn’t have announced that before scaring the piss out of us?” Poe asked, still keeping his voice down, as Rose and Finn broke out into nervous giggles. 

They changed into their disguises behind the bins. Nothing fit perfectly, but it fit well enough that if they didn’t accidentally get caught up in some kind of inspection, nobody would notice. Fully disguised, they rose to full height and headed back to the stairwell. 

“Beebs, hang out down here. As soon as we’ve got Han, we’re gonna want to blast out as soon as possible. Rose’ll handle any more code-breaking.” BB-8 beeped in agreement and headed back towards the lift down to the garbage level. 

“You said the prison blocks were in the middle of the ship?” Poe asked. 

“Yeah, but I wouldn’t know exactly what floor,” Finn admitted. “If we could get to a security office or find a map, we might be able to pinpoint exactly where Han is.”

“We’ll work our way up, see if we can see any signage,” Poe said. “The place is huge, but not Starkiller huge.”

They began ascending the stairs, slowly encountering more and more First Order members as they went. 

“I think we’re in the middle of the sleep cycle,” Finn whispered once they were alone again, “so we’re really only seeing people on the graveyard shift.”

“Awful lot of people working third,” Poe commented. 

“They liked to keep the lower-ranking members tired, at least that’s what it felt like. But most of the generals and the like will be asleep.”

“Sleep deprivation... Yeah, when all this is over, First Order’s got about one billion human rights violations,” Poe mumbled. 

“Like you’re surprised?” Rose chimed in.

“Not really,” Poe replied. The stairwell let them out into what looked like the main hangar, with Tie Fighters lining the walls. Several stormtroopers milled around, toting blasters and standing guard, but, as Finn predicted, there didn’t seem to be any high-ranking officers. 

“See that control tower up there?” Finn said, discretely gesturing up. “We should be able to access the security footage up there.”

“All right.” Poe turned to Rose. “You ready to be an officer?”

“About time,” she mumbled, smiling nervously. “Follow me. Finn, you know where the door up should be?”

“Just walk around the base of the tower. You’ll be able to find it.”

Rose headed out into the hangar bay, Finn and Poe falling into step behind her. Rose held her head high, projecting as much confidence as possible. Nobody so much as looked their way.

They eventually found the doorway and a sloping ramp up to the top of the tower. Once they arrived, they found another code-protected door. 

“All right, Tico, do your thing,” Poe said, stepping back.

Rose knelt down to face the control panel. She pulled some tools out from her jacket pocket and got to work. The sound of quiet whirring filled the corridor, and Finn glanced around nervously. Even with more of the crew asleep than not, this place felt far more in the open than Finn had anticipated. 

“Okay, we should be able to enter now,” Rose said finally, stepping back from the door. She reached over and typed in four zeroes and pressed enter. 

Alarms began screeching overhead. 

“Oh, fuck!” Rose swore, pressing her fingers to her forehead. 

“Calm down, calm down,” Poe mumbled. “Play it cool. If we don’t run, maybe we can get access by tricking the guards. Just stay behind us so they don’t see your face very well.”

A pair of stormtroopers reported to the top of the deck. “What’s your identification?” one asked as the other readied their blaster. 

“PO-0309,” Poe said quickly. 

“Uh, F... FI-2121,” Finn stammered. 

From behind them, Rose squeaked, “Commander Paige Starlighter.”

“Those codes aren’t bringing up any records,” said the stormtrooper, scrolling through a datapad. “Who are you really?”

Finn and Poe were unmasked. The trooper holding a blaster gasped out “traitor!”

“Call in backup, tell them to ready a cell. The Supreme Leader will be interested to know that Resistance spies are on board come morning,” the first stormtrooper commanded. The group was immediately disarmed and escorted back down the ramp.

“Well, we wanted to get to the cell block,” Poe said, sitting on the small bed. From the cell next door, he could hear Finn punching the wall.

“We wanted to be on the other side of the bars!” Finn shouted. 

“This is all my fault, this is all my fault,” Rose mumbled to herself. “I’m so kriffing sorry, we’re gonna die and it’s all my fault.”

“Rose calm down. If anything it’s my fault for not trying to blast us out of there first thing. It was a group bad call.”

“You should have never brought me along, this was a terrible idea! I’ve ruined everything!”

“Rose—“

Another frustrated bang on Poe’s other side.

“Finn, you’re gonna hurt your hand if you do that again—“

“We don’t have anyone now! No comm, no BB-8, no nothing! They’re gonna shoot you two out the airlock and god knows what they’re going to do to me—“

“Can you kids stop screechin’? You’re makin’ it hard for an old man to sleep over here.”

Finn, Poe, and Rose all fell silent as they rushed over to the cell doors. There, on the opposite side of the hall, stood Han Solo. He was sleep-tussled, with the unkempt beginnings of a beard, and he was cradling his right side, but he was alive. 

“Solo!” Finn cried out, a smile crossing his face. 

“Good to see you, too, Big Deal,” Han said, turning to Poe. “And what the hell have you done, Dameron? I thought Leia taught you better than to just get caught without blasters blazing.”

“It’s my fault, Mr. Solo,” Rose interjected. “I’m the one who karked up the codes.”

Han shook his head. “First Order’s just gotten stupid diligent these days. Big Deal’s livin’ up to his namesake.”

“They’ve increased security because of  
me, haven’t they?”

“Oooh yeah. And they haven’t stopped talkin’ about you since I woke up. ‘Traitor’ this, ‘traitor’ that. You might as well be a celebrity, Finn.

“And about that droid of yours? I wouldn’t be surprised if they were on their way right now,” Han said, turning to Poe. “Tough little bastard. Loyal, too.”

Almost as if summoned by Han’s words, a laundry basket came sliding into the room. BB-8 shook off the covering and rolled up to Poe, beeping and whirring quickly. 

“Yeah, yeah, I know we’re in trouble. Did you really take a basket all the way up here?” 

“It got ‘em up here without anyone paying any attention,” Han pointed out.

Poe nodded concedingly, before turning back to BB-8. “You gonna be able to get us out of here?”

BB responded quickly.

“They say they disabled the external alarm, but the last fusebox is next the cell on the far wall, too high up for them to reach.” All four heads turned to Rose, who looked back at them in terror. 

“What, no, I can’t... I ruined it last time!”

“Rose, it’s either that, or we wait for some First Order jackass to come get us in the morning. And trust me, we do not want that,” Poe said urgently. “It’s our only chance.”

“Rose, I’m the one who brought your name up at that meeting,” Finn chimed in. “I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t think there was something capable in you. Now please, for the love of all things, get in that damn fusebox!”

“Okay, okay!” Rose cried out, walking over to the corner of the barred doors. Her arm barely fit through the gap, and she could only barely see what she was doing, but she set to work disconnecting the wires. This, unlike the lock, was much more familiar to the work she’d done on the job. 

“Just one... last... wire...” Rose mumbled, reaching out as far as she could. With the barest tips of her fingers, she yanked the final wire out, tossing it to the floor. The lights in the block dimmed, and the doors all rattled open. 

“You did it, Rose!” Poe exclaimed, running out and wrapping her up in a hug. Finn joined in, laughing almost maniacally. 

“I hate to break up the love party, but I think we oughta make ourselves scarce before someone figures out what’s happened,” Han interjected. “And, I just so happen to know where we might could get some blasters.”

Rey, soaking wet, descended the stairs to where she and Chewie had parked the Falcon. She had spent the rest of the day out in the rain, spending time with Luke, and continuing her training. He had preferred to stay out of the weather, but Rey had reveled in it. Now, however, it was dark and cold. She had another set of clothes on the Falcon, provided to her by the Resistance before she left, so she had decided to head down to change before dinner. 

She headed up the Falcon’s boarding ramp, ringing water from her hair. It puddled on the Falcon’s metal floor, and she made a mental note to wipe it up before heading back up to Luke. 

Once inside, Rey could hear the commlink beeping. She walked towards the cockpit and answered. 

“The Millennium Falcon.”

“We got her!” the person on the other end cheered. “General Organa, she answered!”

Rey could hear commotion on the other end of the line, until Leia spoke. “Rey?”

“General Organa, what’s going on?”

“Rey, it’s Han. He’s alive.”

“I know! Luke told me, he could sense him!”

Leia faltered at the mention of Luke, but quickly pressed on. “Look, Kylo Ren hacked into our private commline. He wants you to come to him, or else they’re going to kill Han.”

“What?” Rey’s throat went dry. “I’ll go. Don’t worry, General, I’m on my way.”

“Thank you, Rey,” Leia replied, sounding unbelievably relieved. “Hurry, you don’t have much time.”

“I’ll have to tell Luke—“

“He already knows,” came a voice from behind.

“Luke?” Rey asked, turning to face him. 

“You forgot this,” he handed Rey her rain poncho with a sad smile.

“Luke, I don’t know if—“

“You’re ready enough, Rey. You’ll be fine.”

“What about you?”

Luke shook his head. “You really think I’m letting you leave without me? We can come back here to train another time. Right now... I think it’s time to go home.”

“We’ve missed you, Luke,” Leia said, her voice warm. “Now get going.”

“Will do. Millennium Falcon, out.” Rey hung up and stood to face Luke and Chewbacca, who had just arrived. 

“Come on,” she said, “they’re counting on us.”

Rey and Chewbacca set the computer to the coordinates the Resistance had sent, and soon they were hurtling through hyperspace. 

“You’re afraid,” Luke commented. 

“Yes.” Rey couldn’t lie.

“Don’t be. The force is with you, always.”

Rey counted down the hours until they would arrive. It was a relatively short jump, which gave her little time to come up with a plan, but also little time to worry. 

As they prepared to enter First Order airspace, Rey headed to one of the escape pods. Chewbacca helped her get set up, giving her a tight, protective hug before letting her climb inside. 

“I think it’d be a tad hypocritical for me to tell you not to worry,” Rey said dryly. 

_I have faith in you,_ Chewbacca replied. _Good luck._

“Thanks, I’m gonna need it.”

The escape pod was a tight fit, and Rey felt less like she was flying a ship and more like she was in a coffin. She hoped that wasn’t prophetic. 

Kylo Ren could sense her arrival long before the pod safely entered the destroyer. He could feel her far more strongly than he had on Starkiller, and in a more curious part of his mind, he wondered what the exact reasoning was. The realistic side of him decided he didn’t have time to figure it out. 

Rey opened the escape pod, crawling out and coming face to face with red-cloaked guards. 

“Stand down,” commanded Ren, walking up to her. 

“I’m here for Han Solo,” Rey said, unwavering. 

“I’m aware. Follow me.” The guards fell into formation, keeping her almost single-file behind Ren.

They walked down a long corridor with large windows. Rey searched for the Falcon, but couldn’t see it. While she wished she could, for some semblance of comfort, they had agreed for Chewie and Luke to get the ship out of the star destroyer’s line of fire as soon as possible. The commlink hidden beneath her wraps would allow her to communicate with both the Resistance and the Falcon if need be, but she wasn’t going to give it away that she had one freely. 

Kylo Ren was uncharacteristically taciturn as they walked. Their previous meeting led her to think he would have spent this entire time threatening her, but instead, he hadn’t spoken since they’d started walking. 

“Now that I’m here, will you release Han?” Rey asked.

“We will see,” was all he said. 

Finally, they reached a pair of dark, grandiose doors. They swung open as they approached, revealing a dimly lit throne room. 

As Rey entered, she could see Snoke sitting in the back, surrounded by even more guards and several other masked beings. Her palms sweated as they approached Snoke, but she refused to give away that she was nervous. It was a business transaction, a bargain, just like all those times on Jakku. She could do this. 

“Kylo Ren, I see you have delivered the girl. Well done,” said Snoke, rising as they approached. 

“Thank you, Supreme Leader,” replied Ren.

“Now, Rey—“

“We had an agreement,” Rey interrupted. “What about Han?”

“In due time.” Snoke flicked his wrist, almost bored. Rey found that she suddenly couldn’t move. 

“I’ve been watching you, Jedi girl. You are strong in the force. Skywalker has trained you, correct?”

Rey fought to not speak, but she found herself shouting out “yes” without knowing it. Snoke was far more powerful than Kylo Ren could ever hope to be.

“He is foolish. He has taught you to avoid your darker feelings, of anger, of pain. That is wrong. You are at your most powerful when you let your rage consume you.”

“You’re wrong!” Rey blurted, fighting against his control. She forced herself to only think of the people she was fighting for. “He taught me that... That love and joy are more powerful than anger!”

Snoke laughed, sending a chill up Rey’s spine. “How... Sentimental,” he said condescendingly. “But don’t you see? You’re only able to break from my control when you’re angry. Aren’t you just dying to break free, to fight, to kill?”

“No!” Rey cried out. She tried to think on the thoughts from before. The rainstorm, Finn, Luke. It kept her strong, just strong enough to keep from caving again. 

“No? Then you are not angry enough.” Snoke relinquished control, causing Rey to drop on all fours in exhaustion. She stared down at the floor as she panted, only looking up when Snoke began to speak again.

“Ren, perhaps it’s time to teach her what true hatred is.” Rey turned to see Kylo Ren staring up at Snoke, before looking back to her. Hesitantly, he ignited his ‘saber and moved into position. 

Rey couldn’t fight the glare that passed over her face. Luke had said she could be angry, that it just couldn’t control her, so she indulged in that.

“You know, I thought maybe there was something good left in you, when you allowed Han to live. I’m beginning to think I was wrong.”

Kylo Ren said nothing, staring her down with an unreadable expression. 

Rey sighed and rose up on shaky legs. “Let’s do this then,” she said, igniting her lightsaber. 

The sound of Rey’s lightsaber colliding with Ren’s was not as satisfying as it had been with Luke’s. She could feel the heat from the combined blades singeing her skin as she bore back against him.

The first few blows were easy, but soon, Kylo Ren’s obvious training began to show. This was not an injured man fighting on the last dregs of adrenaline. This was an experienced fighter, trained with assassin-like precision. 

Still, Rey couldn’t help but feel he was holding back. 

“What are you doing?” Rey grit out, narrowly deflecting a blow. 

“What has Skywalker told you?” Ren asked. 

“Enough.” Rey pushed back, allowing a slight distance between her and Ren. 

“You know nothing about who you really are, do you?”

“And what would you know?”

Kylo Ren growled and charged at her, nearly bowling her over as their ‘sabers collided. “I know your family,” he hissed, his tone far more bitter than his facial expression. “I know who your parents are.”

“And why should I trust you?”

Ren gave another brutal swing instead of responding. 

“I have no reason to!” Rey grunted, kicking him back. Ren almost lost his balance, but found his footing just in time to counter Rey’s attack. 

“What if I showed you?”

“How could you?”

Kylo Ren thrust up, his palm colliding roughly with Rey’s forehead. Her teeth ground together from the roughness, her eyes almost rattling in her head, but she didn’t have long to dwell on it. 

The only experience Rey had to compare to it was when she’d first picked up the lightsaber. The world around her was blurry and dreamlike, causing Rey to stumble as she tried to move. She could see a young boy, no older than ten or eleven years old, with dark hair standing at the end of a long corridor. He was waiting by what looked like a medcenter door. 

By the time Rey was close enough to hear, the door slid open, revealing a younger Han Solo. He knelt down to be on eye level with the child, reaching out and gently ruffling his hair. 

“You ready to meet your sister, Ben?”

“Yeah!”

Han rose back to full height, guiding Ben in. The inside of the room felt cramped compared to the relative endlessness of the hall outside. There was a tired-looking, also young Leia on a bed, holding a bundle of white blankets. 

“Ben, this is your sister, Breha.”

“Hello, Breha,” murmured Ben, leaning up to get a better look at her face. 

The baby’s eyes fluttered open, staring straight into Ben’s.

“She looks a lot like Mama, huh?” Han said, resting his hand on Ben’s shoulder. 

“Yeah,” Ben mumbled. 

“She’s got your eyes, though,” Leia pointed out.

“You can touch her, Ben, as long as you’re careful,” she added, sensing his unease. 

He reached out a small hand, delicately stroking her cheek. Breha leaned in, closing her eyes again. 

“See, bud? She likes you!” Han declared. 

Rey could see the vision shifting and blurring, causing her to stumble again. Somewhere behind her, she heard someone call out “Rey!”

She spun around as best as she could, only for the same little boy to run past her. Ben was chasing a toddler with short brown hair. 

“Come on, don’t hide!” he yelled, chasing the little girl into the darkness. 

Rey felt lost and confused in the formless darkness. She began to cry out for help, “Han? Luke? Ren? Ben?” but the force vision seemed to not end. 

Finally, the darkness settled into a child’s bedroom. The window was open, the curtains blowing in the wind. She could hear the quiet bustle of a city beyond. 

Someone in a mask was climbing through the window, their body hidden by flowing, black robes. Rey tried to shout at the being, tell them to back off, but her voice was unable to work. The figure took a sleeping girl up into their arms and, as quickly as they came, slipped back out into the night. 

As Rey felt the vision fade away, she became aware of the body pressed against her’s. Rey blinked, realizing that the hilt of her lightsaber was pressed flush against Ren’s stomach, the blade protruding from his back. 

“Shit!” Rey cried out, disarming the ‘saber. Ren crumpled to the floor, a hand pressed to his abdomen. 

“I didn’t... I didn’t mean to—“

“Of course you didn’t,” Ren coughed, blood spilling from his lips. “I did.”

“Why would you—“

“You ask a lot of questions.”

Rey grabbed at his face, forcing him to look at her. “What did it mean?”

“Exactly what it you think it does.” He wrapped a hand around her wrist, weakly pushing her away. “Tell Mom and Dad I’ve missed them.”

“Ren? Ren!” Rey screamed. Kylo Ren collapsed to the ground, unmoving. 

Rey stood up and spun around to face Snoke. He seemed unfazed that his apprentice was dead on the floor. 

“It’s a shame, really. Just as he was beginning to prove himself useful,” Snoke sighed. His eyes turned to Rey. “But it’s only a minor setback. I believe I’ve already found his replacement.”

Rey could feel herself being dragged forward, but she dug in her heels with a pained wail and fought back. She could feel every emotion coursing through her: anger, fear, hate, love, joy, sorrow, passion. With one final scream, the glass window on the far side of the room shattered, causing Snoke to lose focus and offering Rey an opportunity to escape. 

As she ran past Ben’s corpse, she grabbed his lightsaber, tucking it into her belt next to her own as she jumped from the window. 

Below, she could make out what appeared to be a quickly escalating battle. Blaster fire ricochetted throughout the hangar, a hoard of stormtroopers attempting to beat back a team of four people and a familiar looking droid. 

“Finn!” Rey called, sliding down a slanted wall and jumping the last few feet to the ground. Finn jolted and turned in her direction, his eyes lighting up as he saw her. 

“Rey!” he hollered, his heart soaring. 

She ran over to Finn, wrapping her arms around his neck. “You’re okay!” she sighed, squeezing him tightly. 

“You’re okay!” Finn replied, squeezing back. 

“Again, hate to break it up, but we’ve got something going on, here!” Han shouted, taking out a pair of stormtroopers with a single blaster fire. 

“Han!” Rey cried out, tears welling in her eyes. He had no idea—

“It’s good to see you, too, kid, but we can have the reunion party later. Right now, we gotta get the hell out of here!”

Rey looked back up to Snoke’s chamber, where guards were pouring out through the shattered window. “I’ve got a commlink, see if we can get some backup,” she said. 

“I’ll cover you,” Han replied, allowing Rey to duck behind him for extra protection. 

“Millennium Falcon, do you read me?” Rey asked into her wrap, pressing the speaker button for the comm. 

Chewbacca howled on the other end. 

“We’re all together, Han and Finn and everyone else— We need help as soon as possible!”

“Chewie, call Leia!” Han interjected, leaning back so that he could be heard. “Tell her to send in as many fighters as she can, to cover our asses while we get out!”

Chewbacca growled in agreement before the commlink switched off. 

“Now come on, Rey, we got shit to do,” Han said, pulling her up so she could see. “You only got the ‘saber?” 

“Yeah, but I can deflect with it, I think.”

“Good. Think you could maul us out a path?”

“I can try,” Rey replied. Taking a deep breath to center herself, Rey charged out into the crowd, swinging her ‘saber around. The two other Resistance members, one Rey recognized and one Rey didn’t, flanked her, leaving Finn and Han behind the barrier they’d been using as a shield. 

The woman was taking aim at anything that moved, taking down trooper after trooper with surprising accuracy. The man, Rey thought it was Finn’s friend Poe, had begun picking off guards as they came down. 

Still, it five against what felt like millions, so it wasn’t long before one of them took a hit. 

Poe saw the sniper taking aim at Finn before Finn could take notice. Without thinking, Poe pushed Finn out of the way, the blaster fire connecting with his shoulder in a spray of blood. 

“Poe!” Finn shouted, abandoning his blaster to dive down next to him. Rey noted it was set to stun.

“Finn, why aren’t you actually fighting?” Rey asked, coming over as close as possible while still fighting back troopers. 

“I didn’t want...” Finn tried to explain, but he could feel something coursing through him.

“Here,” Rey handed him her ‘saber, seemingly not understanding. “Take this.”

Finn gave her a questioning look, but took the ‘saber and began tearing into the troopers that crowded Poe. He wasn’t very precise, but his fury caused anyone nearby to give him a wide berth. 

Rey pulled out Ben’s lightsaber from her belt. As she ignited it, the stormtroopers froze, taking in the oh-so-familiar lightsaber. 

The guards, however, had already watched her kill Ren and take his ‘saber, so they didn’t even falter. 

As Rey, Rose, and Han continued to fight back against the stunned troopers and guards, Finn pulled Poe back behind a TIE fighter. 

“You dumbass,” he muttered, tearing off the sleeves of his own shirt to wrap around Poe’s arm. “Why would you do that?”

“You’re worth it,” Poe slurred, reaching up and grabbing Finn’s hand. “You... You actually fought,” he pointed out. 

Finn stared down at the lightsaber hilt in his hand. “You’re worth it,” he replied, leaning over and pressing his lips to Poe’s. 

The rest of their team made their way over to where Finn and Poe were hiding. Rey tucked away her ‘saber and took Finn’s blaster to stake out. 

“How is he?” she asked. 

“Rose, you mind?” Finn turned to Rose. “I was never very good with field medicine.”

The woman, Rose, leaned over to investigate. “I think you’ve mostly got it,” Rose said, making a couple adjustments. “It should keep him from bleeding out until we can get real medical help, anyways.”

A crackling voice on the commlink made Rey jump.

“You all looking for a lift?” Luke asked.

“Only if you’re not chargin’,” Han replied, unable to bite back his grin.

“The Resistance has taken out their shields, we’re gonna pop the Falcon in and then get her out. You ready?”

“As we’ll ever be.”

Almost as if on cue, the Falcon came skidding in from what appeared to be light speed, bulldozing several stormtroopers as it went. 

“All right, Rose, Finn, you two get Poe up on the ship. Rey, you help me keep anyone else from getting shot.”

They moved as a unit, and thanks to the Falcon disorienting the remaining stormtroopers and guards, they made it safely up the loading ramp. Han closed the ramp behind them, and as soon as it shut, they jumped out to light speed again. 

Han relaxed against the holochess table, watching as Rose and Finn navigated a near-unconscious Poe up into the medical bunk. Rey stood back, clinging to the lightsaber in her hands like a lifeline. 

“How the hell’d you get that?” Han asked.

Rey turned to face him, eyes full of tears. “I...”

Her throat closed up and she felt as though she had no other option than to fall into Han’s arms. He caught her as her knees buckled. 

“Hey, it’s okay, sweetheart,” Han said, rubbing her back. “We’re gonna be okay.”

“Ben’s dead,” Rey sobbed against his chest. “He... He impaled himself on my ‘saber.”

Han tensed. “How—“

“He gave me a force vision, of my past, of my parents. While I was out he must have...” Rey trailed off, pulling away from Han.

“My real name is Breha. I’m the daughter Luke said you’d been looking for.”

Han felt the air leave his lungs. He stared into Rey’s eyes, silently begging her to not be playing a cruel joke. 

“Breha—“ Han breathed, pulling her back into a tight embrace. “When... When you said your name was Rey, I couldn’t let myself believe that...”

“You called me Rey for short,” Rey mumbled.

“Yeah, Ben came up with it. Guess he thought Breha was too hard to say.”

“He said he missed you. Those were his last words: ‘Tell Mom and Dad I’ve missed them.’”

Han couldn’t stop the sob that ripped through him. 

Rey nodded, wrapping her fingers around Han’s arm. They stayed there, holding each other through tears, until Luke approached them an unknown amount of time later. 

“We’ve docked,” he said. “Leia wants to see you.”

Rey exited the Falcon, clinging to Han’s bicep as she walked. A medical team came to take Poe away, who was now fully unconscious. Finn and Rose watched, Finn wringing his hands nervously. 

“Go with him,” Rose said knowingly, bumping his side. Finn didn’t even argue, quickly following the stretcher. 

Leia was standing a few yards away, watching as the remaining group approached. 

“Breha,” she said, reaching out to hug Rey. 

“You knew?”

“I felt it when Ben showed you.”

“So you know—“

Leia nodded. “If he had to die, at least it was for a good reason.”

“I’m not—“

“You are,” Leia insisted. “I may have lost one child, but I found another.”

She turned to Luke, who was standing behind Rey and Han. “You’ve gotten old,” she said teasingly. 

“And you haven’t changed a bit.” Luke reached out, pulling Leia into his arms. 

“I’ve missed you so much,” Leia mumbled. She blindly pulled Rey and Han into the hug. “I’ve missed all of you.”

Rey, in the middle of the family she thought she’d never rediscover, felt fresh tears slip from her eyes. It wasn’t over, it wouldn’t be for a long time. But here, where she felt safer than she ever had before, she knew she could overcome whatever else she had to face. 

And somewhere, in the force, she knew that all of them, including Ben, believed the same.

**Author's Note:**

> i see your snoke dying as a red herring plot twist and raise you: kylo ren dying as a red herring plot twist. 
> 
> i’m actually super nervous the kylo ren stans will murder me for this askajska
> 
> i kept the finnpoe really subtle because i was challenging myself to write a sw movie that might actually get made. 
> 
> this is the first Truly Gen fic i’ve probably ever written so i hope it didn’t suck!


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